1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for creating digital documents from hardcopy documents by means of a reproduction system comprising a display and a scanner, wherein the method comprises the steps of: detecting an event of an intended scanning of a hardcopy document; upon detection of the event, opening an image adjustment screen at the display, said image adjustment screen comprising an image area, a scan settings area and a process button; before scanning of the hardcopy document, displaying a digital image at the image area of the image adjustment screen; displaying image parameter values at the scan settings area of the image adjustment screen; activating the image parameter values by activating the process button; and scanning the hardcopy document according to the image parameter values corresponding with the displayed digital image resulting in a digital document.
The present invention also relates to a reproduction system configured to execute the method according to the present invention.
2. Description of Background Art
Reproduction systems are known to include a scanner to scan hardcopy originals, e.g. paper originals and to create a digital document. Such a scanner may be a color scanner that can be used to produce a color scan of the hardcopy original. A reproduction system including a scanner may also include a print engine in order to print the digital document scanned from the hardcopy originals. The print engine produces a print of the hardcopy originals. Such a reproduction system usually has a local user interface or a remote workstation to be used by an operator or a user. The local user interface or the remote workstation includes a display for displaying image parameter values to be set before scanning of a hardcopy original and a setting device configured to prepare the reproduction system for the reproduction of the hardcopy original, for example for updating the set image parameter values. The display and setting device may be integrated into a touch screen.
A digital image is defined as a product of a scanning action. This product may take the form of a scan file being a number of bits of the digital image residing in a memory of the reproduction system. This scan file may take the form of a print out that is printed by the reproduction system on a receiving material based on the digital image. The digital image may be a colored digital image.
The intention of a user to scan a hardcopy document may be detected by means of a relevant event. Such an event may be opening a lid of a document feeder, putting in a hardcopy original in a document feeder or pushing a copy or scan button. Upon the detection of such an event, preparations may be carried out for the reproduction of the hardcopy original.
A preparing step for the reproduction of the hardcopy original is setting image parameters, for example for tuning of brightness, contrast and colors of the digital image.
When reproducing, e.g. copying or scanning, a hardcopy original, it may be very hard to make a satisfactory digital image, in particular, since no preview is available, because the hardcopy original has not been scanned yet. Reasons for this difficulty may be that the hardcopy original has color or contrast related problems, the scanner perceives the colors of the hardcopy original different from how the user sees them, or the printer has not been calibrated correctly.
Typically the user is offered a way to indicate to the reproduction system how the digital image should look by means of displaying a predetermined digital image at the display, e.g. the operator panel, according to image parameters that are set with initial image parameter values. These image parameters may be visualized with respect to the predetermined image and displayed by the display. The user may change these initial image parameter values in order to change the predetermined digital image into an image that shows the desired output.
However, this is not very helpful if the hardcopy original is not like the predetermined digital image.